There are conventionally known devices that control multiple in-vehicle units mounted in a vehicle according to the situation. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle agent system in which various units mounted in a vehicle can be effectively utilized without troubling the driver. Here, driver information storing means is provided to beforehand store correspondences between conditions, such as instructions and situations, and in-vehicle units suitable for the conditions. When an instruction is given from a driver or the situation changes, an in-vehicle unit is controlled based on the correspondence stored in the driver information storing means. Further, response determining means is provided to confirm the driver's intention before an in-vehicle unit is controlled; thereby, the correspondence in the driver information storing means is updated according to determination made by the response determining means.
Patent Document 2 discloses a device that estimates the driver's intention and controls an in-vehicle unit based on the result of the estimation to lessen the load on the driver. In the device disclosed in this document, control start conditions and the details of control are stored beforehand in a control information table in correspondence with each other. When the state of the driver satisfies a control start condition stored in the control information table, the control device carries out the details of control in correspondence with it. This document also discloses that a control information table is updated based on change in the state of the driver that occurs when control is carried out, change in the state of operation that occurs when control is canceled, or the like.                Patent Document 1: JP-2003-252130 A        Patent Document 2: JP-2005-329800 A        
As mentioned above, there are known control devices that control equipment mounted in a vehicle according to a predetermined condition and control devices that update conditions based on the driver's response to control selected according to the situation or the like. However, the devices disclosed in the above documents involve problems. In these devices, a condition is updated based on whether or not the driver accepts control selected by the device, and the frequency with which a condition is updated is very low.
In the devices disclosed in the above documents, further, a control condition is updated by determining whether or not the correspondence between a condition and control stored in a table is appropriate, based on the result of acceptance by the driver. When predetermined control is carried out under a predetermined condition and the driver does not accept the control, that condition is not suitable for the driver and should not be used from the next time onward. In the devices disclosed in the above documents, to cope with this, a record in which a set of the predetermined condition and control for the condition is stored is substantially deleted from a table. It can be said that the devices disclosed in the above documents can also carry out control suitable for the driver by learning in that control that will be highly probably rejected by the driver is not carried out. However, this update method is disadvantageous. The method is such that a condition unsuitable for the driver is just excluded, and it works only in the direction in which the range of in-vehicle unit control is narrowed.